1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices used to draw or write multiple lines on paper, display boards and the like. The present invention provides a simple holder to retain multiple drawing pens, pencils and other instruments for use in drawing parallel lines on the selected drawing medium.
2. Description of Related Art
There are various devices currently used for drawing parallel lines with the most commonly known being the aids used by draftspersons. Many plastic templets exist which have apertures formed therein for use in inserting the drawing point of a pen or pencil which device must be held by the user. Using such templets usually requires moving a pen from aperture to aperture for purposes of parallel line drawing and use of a ruler or straight edge to keep each line parallel when drawing.
Multiple tip pens have been designed which may be used to draw two parallel lines. The pin tips and ink are contained in a single casing which may be held in the hand. Such pens may contain pen tips having different spacing depending on the drawn line spacing desired. Extending or expanding such a system as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,338 may be feasible, but beyond the two pen tip design would be complicated to manufacture and maintain. A multi-pen version of a drawing device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,338. However, by its design it is limited to small drawing instruments such as ball point pen refill elements as illustrated in the figures. This expanding problem would be particularly true if wide spacing of lines is desired such as used for a wall mounted drawing or chalk board.
The present invention is preferably a holder formed of two half casings which close together to retain a drawing instrument such as a dry erase marker. The aid is generally rectangular with provision to hold multiple drawing instruments for drawing the desired number of parallel lines. By using existing drawing instruments it is easy to replace pens and thereby pen tips when they are not working properly. Also the structure of the aid is simple to manufacture as no ink or other lining component is required to be stored directly in the aid. With multiple pens installed the drawing aid may be held in the hand and the multiple tips of the pens moved across a writing surface to create parallel lines.